Egypt’s government was due to begin enforcing 9 p.m. closing times for restaurants and shops on Saturday, March 28, 2026, amid controversy over a measure threatening evening-shift workers and imposing substantial costs on businesses.
The government says the decision aims to conserve energy as the regional escalation involving the United States, Israel and Iran continues and gas imports to Egypt are affected.
The measures require shops, malls, restaurants and cafes to close at 9 p.m., extended to 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Government offices in the New Administrative Capital are to close at 6 p.m., roadside advertising lights are to be switched off, and street and public-square lighting reduced by 50% at night.
Some ministries were also studying remote work for administrative employees one or two days a week, excluding essential sectors such as factories, health units and productive projects to maintain basic services.
The government calls the measures exceptional. They follow Israel’s early-March announcement suspending gas exports to Egypt indefinitely, stopping approximately 1.1 billion cubic feet per day previously delivered through the Israeli pipeline and directly affecting domestic supply.
Earlier government assurances referred to alternative import sources, domestic production, contracted liquefied natural gas cargoes and long-term supply agreements. Observers say the new measures nevertheless expose the depth of the wartime energy crisis.
The report estimates Egypt’s daily gas consumption at approximately 6.8 billion cubic feet against domestic production of about five billion, indicating a structural gap. These are estimates for the period discussed in the article.
Energy Savings and Economic Impact
Domestic gas production has fallen as some fields declined while consumption increased, expanding dependence on imports. LNG imports rose to approximately nine million tonnes in 2025 from about 2.7 million tonnes in 2024, according to the figures cited in the report.
Economic researcher Elhami al-Mirghani says the crisis extends beyond higher fuel prices to electricity and gas, prompting temporary austerity measures.
He notes that after fuel-price increases in October 2025, the prime minister said that increase would be the last, before another rise was announced in response to the war.
Al-Mirghani told Zawia3 that the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company’s 2023/2024 report puts shops at only 5.4% of electricity consumption and public lighting at 2.7%. He argues that earlier closing and switching off advertisements therefore cannot deliver large savings.
The same report assigns approximately 10.4% to government and related sectors, 27% to industry and 37.2% to households, he says, questioning whether the measures address the main sources of energy pressure. The listed categories do not constitute the report’s entire consumption breakdown.
Citing the 2022/2023 economic census and other sources, al-Mirghani describes approximately 400,000 restaurant and cafe establishments: 180,000 restaurants and 220,000 cafes and cafeterias, with annual activity exceeding EGP 104 billion. He says 48.5% of restaurant establishments are unregistered, 90% are sole proprietorships and 99% employ fewer than ten workers. Around 710,000 people work in restaurants alone, while precise cafe employment data are unavailable.
He also cites approximately 1.7 million retail shops employing 4.1 million workers and owned by 1.9 million people. He estimates the 9 p.m. rule could affect more than 7.5 million people across owners and workers, with consequences for household incomes. This is his overall estimate; the article does not provide a non-overlapping calculation combining every sector.
Al-Mirghani accepts that the energy problem is real but says the measures are temporary and insufficient, failing to address consumption structure or strengthen national production capacity.
Economist Dr Khaled al-Shafei, director of the Capital Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, sees the decision as evidence of a wider crisis-management problem. He questions its effectiveness when other conservation options exist, noting that it follows Ramadan and Eid, when businesses operated into the early morning, and conflicts with Egypt’s strong nighttime activity.
He calls for a clearer, more comprehensive approach beyond rapid reactions to global oil and gas shocks. He contrasts an estimated EGP 36 billion saved through fuel-price rises with what he describes as an EGP 120 billion debt-service cost from a one-percentage-point interest-rate increase. These figures are his comparison of fiscal effects.
Al-Shafei warns that closing restaurants and cafes early could hurt tourism and conflict with the state’s target of US$25 billion in tourism revenue.
Shorter hours also raise practical questions about meeting nighttime needs, even with digital services and remote work, he says. He urges alternatives that do not add burdens to citizens and argues that economic reform should produce tangible improvements in their lives.
Structural Distortions in Energy
Prime Minister Madbouly said the monthly gas import bill had risen to US$1.65 billion after the war began, from approximately US$560 million before it—roughly US$1.1 billion more—to supply power stations and factories and preserve production and jobs. He cited crude oil rising from US$69 to US$100 per barrel and warned of US$150–200 if escalation continued. The latter were projections made during the period, rather than realised prices established by this report.
MP Mohamed Farid, of the Coordination of Youth Parties and Politicians, said the import-bill surge confirmed a genuine crisis. In a Facebook post, he asked: if the dollar cost of imports is known, what savings are expected from each announced measure?
Taxpayers are entitled to estimates for individual measures and a clear framework for evaluating success, Farid argues. Without it, decisions become open-ended responses with no standard for judging results.
He says the burden is distributed unequally. Remote work, which he considers the most efficient government-side measure and one with a previous successful experience, was postponed for further study instead of being adopted immediately. He warns that measures affecting businesses can produce limited savings at a direct cost to income and jobs in a labour market already characterised by low wages and poor-quality employment.
The crisis reveals structural distortions in energy and repeated exposure to global shocks, Farid says. Managing the immediate situation must be accompanied by real energy and business-environment reform so citizens do not face an internal recession on top of the external shock.
The government also approved fuel-price increases of 14–30%, the third consecutive rise between April 2025 and March 2026, according to the report.
In recent years, Egypt used scheduled power cuts to reduce demand. In July 2023, severe heat, higher electricity consumption and fuel shortages prompted the Cabinet to publish rotating outage schedules across governorates to maintain system operation and avoid unplanned cuts.
In 2024, cuts increased from two to three hours daily in some areas. That year, shops other than restaurants and supermarkets were required to close at 10 p.m., or 11 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Restaurants and cafes closed at midnight, while delivery remained available around the clock.
The report says load shedding stopped in 2025 after the Finance Ministry announced payment of 25–30% of arrears owed to foreign petroleum-sector partners. The electricity and petroleum ministries also announced cleaner and diversified generation initiatives and interconnection projects to raise output in subsequent years. Despite those plans, conservation and load-management measures returned amid the war.
Nighttime Work and Community Safety
Economic and social researcher Mona Ezzat notes that many Arab and European capitals have early closing hours beginning at 7 or 8 p.m., but Egypt has a different pattern of street life extending through the day and night.
She told Zawia3 that businesses’ opening hours reflect social habits: many Egyptians stay up late, go out at night and spend hours in cafes and restaurants. This supports sales and daily business income. A 9 p.m. closing rule could impose losses and weaken activity in sectors already experiencing stagnation, she says.
Lamia Lotfy, a researcher on women’s issues and executive director of the Rural Women Initiative, says conservation measures, especially early closures, directly affect community security.
Shorter evening hours affect not only shift workers but secondary-school students and others returning late, she told Zawia3. Empty streets after shops, restaurants and workshops close can increase risks for people returning from work or other commitments.
Egyptian society relies on what she calls “shared protection”: people’s presence provides informal safety and discourages dangerous behaviour. Fewer people outside, alongside limited patrols relative to need, weakens the sense of security, particularly when someone must reach a hospital or pharmacy at night, Lotfy argues.
What Are the Alternatives?
Lotfy proposes practical alternatives, citing her initiative’s use of solar power in a remote area. Meeting basic needs cost approximately EGP 170,000–180,000 despite the system’s benefits.
The state should simplify access to alternative energy and offer affordable instalment schemes rather than rely only on consumption restrictions, she says. Bureaucracy and financing conditions impede adoption. Balancing energy savings and security requires policies prioritising citizens’ needs.
A policy paper by Alternative Policy Solutions, titled “The Growing Electricity Burden: Can Egypt Find a Way Out of Rising Prices?”, identifies increasing reliance on expensive inputs, particularly natural gas and fuel oil, as a major reason for rising electricity prices. Domestic gas production declined while demand continued increasing, widening the gap.
The paper says earlier reliance on power cuts generated public anger, leading the government to expand gas imports. It recommends investment in medium- and large-scale solar plants to break the cycle of rising electricity costs and meet needs more efficiently.
Customs exemptions and tax reductions on essential inputs could significantly lower project costs, the study argues.
Early closing exposes structural problems in Egypt’s energy system and economy: greater gas-import dependence, declining domestic production and the absence of integrated demand-management policies. Temporary measures consequently become direct burdens on citizens, informal workers and service-sector businesses.
